I decided not to display the map, or even reveal that I had one to the girls. We weren’t here to chart the dungeon, after all. Plus it was more fun doing a blind run of the place... Though the girls ended up discovering the stairs to the second floor much faster than I expected.
We descended the stairs and made it to another wide room again. There was a left-hand path and a right-hand path. We decided to proceed towards the right. We made it to another crossroads, and then another.
“That reminds me... We should invest in both a map and a compass. If you get lost, you mightn’t be able to get back out.” Hilde had a point, most adventurers certainly did do that. I, on the other hand, could afford to be lazy about matters like this. I didn’t have to worry about getting lost at all thanks to my [Gate] spell.
We casually continued on, until we came to a big pair of double doors. We entered through and found ourselves in a small-ish room. There was a treasure chest in the corner, too. I wondered if this was a monster’s secret stash or something.
I was picturing the stereotypical game character invading someone’s home and opening all their furniture in search of treasure.
Hilde looked extremely excited. This was, after all, her first ever treasure chest. I, on the other hand, just felt awkward.
The chest contained daggers. Lots and lots of daggers. Some rusted, some just dagger handles. All trash. Just as I’d thought. Nothing valuable at all.
But I had no idea why it was exclusively daggers... Maybe the person or creature that stashed them there was just a fanatic. Then again, certain animals like crows and dogs did like to collect weird stuff.
“How disappointing...”
“There there, Hilde. Real treasures aren’t so easily found.”
“Hold that thought a moment, Touya-dono. Is this not a silver dagger?” I looked where Yae was pointing and, sure enough, though it was dusty and at the bottom of the chest... There was a dagger of pure silver. It was a simple dagger, not very ornate, but it’d definitely be good enough to sell. Treasure was treasure, after all.
“I don’t think it’ll sell for a lot, but how about it?”
“No... I’ll keep this as a memento. A memory of the day I began adventuring properly.” Hilde slipped the blade into a pouch at her waist. Well, if she didn’t want to sell it, I wasn’t going to stop her.
As Hilde smiled, so too did I.
◇ ◇ ◇
“There, that oughta do it.”
“Wow... You’re crazy... But I guess that’s the norm by now, huh...” I’d just finished renovating the Silver Moon, so I jumped down from the roof.
There were too many adventurers and too few rooms, so I expanded the first building and constructed a second for good measure.
On top of that, the new building was officially recognized as a guild-affiliated adventurer’s inn. In other words, the second branch was partnered with the guild, and built close to the portals so adventurers could easily stay there between dungeon runs.
I’d made some tweaks to the main branch and increased the price of stay a little bit, so it could be the main place for traders and general travelers. I hadn’t increased the price by too much, didn’t want people calling us a rip-off. Given what the place provided in terms of amenities, we were more than fairly priced.
“You only came to ask if a few renovations would be okay... I didn’t expect you to do all of this in just a few hours. I’m amazed...”
“Yeah... It’s really something...” Micah, the proprietor, and Fleur, one of her employees, were staring at the new and improved Silver Moon with wide, awestruck eyes.
“Yep, easy does it. All that’s left is deciding how many people to hire.”
“Ah, in that case... I actually have a few application letters here. There are a few people from back home in Reflet who expressed a desire to move here.” Friends from back in Reflet, huh... Sounds good to me. I opened up a [Gate] and took Micah through to the sleepy town of Reflet.
We started speaking with the people Micah had mentioned, and it seemed they were all more than happy to come and work in Brunhild.
Some of them even said they wanted to start working right away, so we sent them off to pack their luggage and come back with us on the return trip. It felt a little like stealing citizens, but hey, they wanted to work.
We had some free time after that, so Micah went to go speak to Dolan, her father. I decided to take a little stroll, since I didn’t want to interfere in father-daughter affairs.
I hadn’t visited Reflet in a long time, so it was a little nostalgic. As I walked, I thought a bit about Brunhild’s future.
“I guess we need to restock on weapons, armor, and adventuring goods... Olba’s Brunhild store is probably selling out, too... But still, transporting stuff to and from Brunhild takes a while... Carriages can only go so fast.” Olba had an artifact that allowed him to transport smaller goods faster than the other merchants, but it still had its limits.
I’d given up on the idea originally... But maybe I should make a car after all? No, if I’m gonna make anything it should be a train...
But then again... horse-drawn carriages are pretty fast, maybe if I could just increase how much they can carry... Wait. Can’t I just apply [Gravity] to make the carriages lighter? Yeah, that’s a great idea. I can make a multipurpose, lightweight horse carriage. Olba would totally buy that, even if it was pricey. Plus, if I enchanted it with [Storage] it’d be able to carry a lot more, too!
I wondered about possible vehicle variations I could make. It might be possible to make a carriage with defensive enchantments for royals or nobles. Mulling over the idea reminded me that my royal stables had no horses in them. That was because we just used [Gate] to get around, so there was no need.
All that aside, things in Brunhild were looking up. The dungeons were highly successful. Nobody had died yet, but there were a number of injured people coming through daily. Apparently after the first floor, the power of the monsters and magical beasts spiked up considerably. If the adventurers couldn’t make the proper call, they’d end up getting pretty badly maimed.
From what I’d heard, Amaterasu had been explored up until the fourth floor. Several parties had acquired some valuable treasures from secluded hoards on that level, too. The rumors were getting around, so the number of fortune-seekers would surely increase again soon.
As I thought to myself, I looked to the left and found myself in front of Zanac’s store. That was nostalgic. It was the first store I’d seen upon finding myself in the new world.
It looked a bit different now, though. For starters, it was almost twice its original size. They were selling stuff like school uniforms and bathing suits now, though, so they were probably making a lot of profit from their unusual and exotic designs. I decided to take a look inside.
“Welcome! Welcome to Fashion King Zanac!” I entered the shop and was greeted by a slightly older, smiling girl. ... I guess it’s in her job description to greet people like that...
This store also had a branch in Brunhild, so I knew full well how gaudy and over-the-top a place it was.
I asked the counter clerk to call Zanac over, and before long the man himself was there before me.
“Ohoho. Well, if it isn’t His Highness himself. What brings you to Reflet on this lovely day? A matter of urgency, perhaps?”
“We were just looking for more employees to work at the Silver Moon in Brunhild. I ended up coming over with Micah to talk to some people about it. Now I’m here, since I had some time to kill.”
“Oho, I see... Does that mean you might like to place an order for employee uniforms?” Oh, good point. That totally slipped my mind. Zanac sure is sharp, though. He has the trader’s opportunistic eye.
I couldn’t decide at the time since I didn’t know the sizes of the new workers, so I told Zanac I’d put the order in with the Brunhild branch of his store later on.
“Oh, right. I had a small matter I thought I might ask you about, Your Highness.
A noble in Roadmare has put in an order for a dress with an unusual, unique design. If it’s no bother to you, I was wondering if you might have any... creative input on dresses that look like no other.”
“A unique dress design, huh... Hmm. Can I have some blank paper?” As the clerk ran off to get me some paper, I whipped out my smartphone and started browsing for fancy-looking dresses. I picked out about twenty interesting-looking designs. Then I used [Drawing] to print off the designs and handed them over to Zanac.
“Goodness... I’ve never seen anything quite like this. I’m sure the customer will be satisfied with one of these, thank you!”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure none of the royal families have any dresses like these. So if it’s unique they’re after, then they won’t get much better.” If the noble wanted something one-of-a-kind, they were lucky their order came in at just the right time for me to help.
As I printed out a few designs for matching gloves and shoes, a man suddenly burst through the front door with an excessive amount of presence and strength.
It was Barral, the owner of the Eight Bears weapon shop. That was a surprise. But, before I could even react to the bear of a man’s dramatic entrance...
“Z-Zanac! There’s a Dragon! A Dragon is attacking Reflet, you need to get out of here!”
“What?!” A Dragon?! I stormed out the door and looked up, only to see a green-scaled creature circling overhead.
It had deep red eyes, rugged and rough skin, and spines protruding from its tail. It was about the same size as the Black Dragon I faced back in Mismede.
The only difference was that this Green Dragon had two back legs, and wings fused to the two limbs at the front. Unlike the Black Dragon that I’d fought before, which had four legs and a separate set of wings, this one was visually distinct. It was a Wyvern!
“Groaaargh!” The town descended into panic as the beast let out a terrible roar. It craned its neck and began hurling globs of flame from its mouth.
“Gh...!” I used [Fly] to get airborne and, deftly weaving between the flaming projectiles, moved up towards the creature. Then, I held my right arm out.
“[Absorb].” The balls of flame dissipated into nothing, flowing into my body as raw magical energy. [Absorb] was another of my recent Null magic acquisitions. It turned magical effects into magical energy, and granted it to whoever cast the absorption spell. A Dragon’s breath was simply the conversion of magical energy to flames, so naturally it was affected too.
But that was still extremely close. Had any of those blasts hit the town, it would’ve been a complete catastrophe.
“GRAUUUUUURGH!!” The Wyvern’s eyes locked on to me, regarding me with eyes that said “Keep out of my way, pest.” Hey, don’t you look at me like that! You’re the troublemaker here!
I accelerated towards the Wyvern and gave it a stern kick in the gut. I also applied a certain magical effect alongside the contact.
“[Gravity].” The creature suddenly jerked downwards due to the shift in its own weight, crashing down into the main street. Luckily for me, the place was completely evacuated, and now the beast had no way to escape.
I looked down on the Wyvern with a sneer. It was desperately struggling to fly away, but its body was far too heavy. I invoked [Gravity] on myself to massively increase my own weight and, from a height of several dozen feet, plummeted right down on the pathetic creature. I heard a distinct crunching sound as the creature’s backbone splintered and snapped. It was dead.
“Man... What a pain in the ass.” Cheers erupted from all sides as I surveyed the twitching draconic corpse. Gradually, once all sense of danger had passed, the townsfolk came and gathered around me.
“Goodness gracious me... Incredible... You killed a Dragon just like that, an airborne one at that... Thank goodness you were visiting today, Your Highness...” Zanac quietly muttered as he eyed the dead Wyvern up and down. Barral just stared in my direction, lost for words. Micah and Dolan ran over from out of the crowd.
“This... Good lord, you’ve gone and done something insane again. I’m glad the town’s okay, but... What are you even gonna do with this?”
“I don’t really need it. You can have the meat, Dolan. From what I’ve heard, Dragon flesh is supposed to be really tasty. Zanac, you can have its hide. If you tan it you should be able to make good jackets and so on. Barral, you can have the bones. They’ll make good weapon crafting materials.” Everyone nearby gasped in shock at my words, but it was Micah who actually spoke up.
“W-W-Wait a second! You know Dragon materials are top-tier, right?! Are you sure you’re fine just giving it away like that?”
“Yeah, like I said, I don’t need them. It should help everyone out a bit. I’d be happy if you all took it. You guys were kind to me when I first showed up, after all.” I’d only spent a little bit in Reflet, but they were good people. I definitely owed them a debt of gratitude. So if they accepted something like this, it’d help me feel like I was giving back a little.
“Ah, be mindful when you strip the tail, alright? Those barbs look poisonous.”
“Oh? Got it. Thanks.” After my warning, Dolan began carefully stripping the beast’s tail of barbs.
Still... Why was there a Wyvern here? If it was hungry, there’s a bunch of Lone-Horned Wolves in the southern forest... It kinda feels like it was directly targeting this town.
I’d heard from Relisha that there were eyewitness reports of more Dragon attacks in recent weeks.
Weak Dragons had appeared in Yulong, Sandora, and Roadmare. Wyverns were a Dragon subspecies, but still classed as weak Dragons. I wondered why they were attacking people, though. There surely had to be more to this than met the eye.
“Hm. What’s this...” Dolan raised a brow as he peeled back some scales. He had removed the head, but stopped when he noticed something unusual beneath the skin.
I looked over at what Dolan was fussing about, and found something driven deep into the Dragon’s skull.
I pulled it out. It was some kind of pointed object, thirty centimeters in length. It vaguely resembled a skewer, it was fairly thick. From the looks of things, it had dug through the Dragon’s skull and penetrated its brain. I could feel a very faint, but very real pulse of magical power running through the strange device.
“...Don’t tell me the Dragon was being controlled with this thing.” I looked at the strange stake, frowning a little. The idea occurred to me that this might’ve been another item that fell out of the Storehouse. The thought troubled me for a while, but I put the object in [Storage]. I decided I’d ask Cesca and the others if they recognized it later on. If it was from the Storehouse, they’d surely know about it.
But still, the presence of that thing was troubling in itself. If the Dragon was being manipulated by that artifact, then there was some kind of perpetrator out there. A puppet master potentially pulling the strings of a whole species.
I was worried. Mostly because I felt it in my bones. A dark feeling. A feeling that something, somewhere, was about to endanger a lot of people. Much to my regret, I knew then and there that my feelings weren’t wrong. Something terrible was going to happen. I’d have bet my life on it.
◇ ◇ ◇
“I can say with absolute clarity that this isn’t one of Doctor Babylon’s creations.”
“Seriously, Cesca? It’s not from the Storehouse or anything?”
“That is correct.” A Wyvern had attacked Reflet. It had a strange needle in its brain, so I decided to show it to Cesca. She immediately shot down my theory. Rosetta then took the needle into her hand, and carefully studied it.
“Sir! This appears to be a Dominant Resonance Needle! Surely the handiwork of Professor Elks, yessir!”
“Uh... Elks?”
“Professor Deborah Elks. In the days of Partheno’s glory, she was known as a master of magecraft. Several degrees inferior to our dear Doctor Babylon, however.”
Huh... Guess it never occurred to me that there might be more people
like her. Still, I’m glad to know this didn’t come from the Storehouse. I feel a little less responsible for this, now. At the end of the day, a tool is only as wicked as its holder, so the one to blame here is obviously whoever stuck this thing inside that Wyvern’s head!
The Blockbracer, the Drainbracer, and that freaky jewel that made people immortal... They were all wielded by wicked people who ended up being consumed by their desires. The Lestian Holy Sword, on the other hand, was justly wielded by a righteous king who came to be beloved by all those who followed him. It’s really just a matter of the person behind the item. Still, even if that’s the case... it’s not like I’ll chew out the Terminal Gynoid at the Storehouse any less. It’s her fault for being so negligent to begin with!
“There’s a lot to say about Professor Elks, sir! She held Ma’am Babylon in the lowest of esteems, yessir she did! She made plenty of artifacts, and Ma’am Babylon always said that they were strong, but she always neglected safety features, or imbued them with strange effects that ended up causing trouble for their users! Whenever Professor Elks brought stuff to Ma’am Babylon, she’d tell her that her stuff was interesting, but uninspired!”
“Yes, Doctor Babylon had a tense relationship with Elks. The doctor’s creations were always of a far higher quality, much to Elks’ chagrin.”
That’s probably just how that damn Doctor was, though. She probably got a real kick out of teasing Elks. Kinda reminds me of the case of Akechi Mitsuhide and Oda Nobunaga. A genius and a prodigal up-and-comer aren’t really in the same class at all. Babylon probably didn’t even regard Elks as an opponent or rival... Must’ve sucked to be the lesser of the two.
“So what’s with this dominatey resonance needle thing?”
“Ah, yes sir! A Dominant Resonance Needle is an artifact designed to take control of magical beasts, sir! It’s filled right up with magic and stabbed right through the skull, then the user can control the affected creature at will! It brings out the greatest potential of the affected creature, but also rapidly diminishes its lifespan. There were also risks associated with harming the user’s mind, since it forces a mental link between the two, sir! That’s why it was ultimately tossed into the trash!”
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 8 Page 6
